Nothing Ear Headphones Review

The Nothing Ear buds have a warm frequency response out of the box. Overall, this sound profile suits a variety of genres of music, especially if you like a smoother sound. They sound fairly similar regardless of whether you use ANC, Transparency, or a normal listening mode, but they decrease volume output, cut the highs, and drastically taper off the bass response if you use the mic.

If you want to tinker, the buds have a sound personalization feature and an equalizer in their companion app with a separate 'Ultra Bass' feature. You can set custom EQ settings or use the presets (which you see in this graph), and interestingly, the 'More Bass' preset pumps up the bass more than the 'Ultra Bass' set to maximum.

The frequency response consistency is great. They deliver bass and mids the same between wears and wearers. Make sure you've got the correct ear tip size and that the oblong shape sits the same each time. You can use the app's fit test as well.

The bass compliance is superb. Though the entire region is slightly inflated relative to our target curve, it's virtually flat, so these headphones reproduce lows with pretty balanced amounts of rumble and boom. In songs like In the Midnight Hour by Wilson Pickett, the beat of the kick drum and walking bassline come across with just a little bit of extra boom and thump to hold down the rhythm. The lows have an even amount of thump and boom and don't overwhelm the higher frequencies.

The mid-range target compliance is excellent. There's a small peak in the low-mids, which either muddies voices up slightly or adds a nice warmth to them, depending on your taste. But other than that, the range is balanced. So keyboards, guitars, and lead instruments come through sounding full without harshness.

The treble target compliance is very good. Nearly the entire range is a little recessed relative to our target. A small dip in the low-treble reduces the details of vocals and warms up the sound, while a bigger dip in the mid-treble dulls sibilance. Depending on your tastes, you may find this sounds warm and smooth, or not quite as bright and detailed as you'd like.

These earbuds have very good peaks and dips performance, indicating a smooth frequency response that adheres to the earbuds' warm sound signature. They're very flat through the bass, with subtle dips and peaks in the mid-range (owing to a small L/R driver mismatch in the mids). The largest peaks and dips are in the higher registers, where cymbals can sound alternately dull or piercing depending on their pitch.

The Nothing Ear have decent stereo mismatch performance. Their weighted amplitude and frequency response mismatches fall within good values. The small mid-range mismatch in the frequency response and phase can tilt the stereo image somewhat, but this may or may not be present in other units, and it's not necessarily noticeable for everyone with real-world audio content. The phase is a little mismatched, which can alter the sound very slightly, which is also connected to the small frequency response mismatch in the mids. These results are true for our unit but can vary from other examples of the same model.

The Nothing Ear have excellent group delay performance. This translates to a tight-sounding low-end, and transparent, defined mids and treble.

The Nothing Ear exhibit exceptional harmonic distortion performance. At 94 dB/SPL and 104 dB/SPL, they output a pure signal across the sweep of the frequencies tested.

These are Bluetooth earbuds and don't need an amp to drive them.

These are the settings used to test these earbuds, except for medium ear tips, which were used for the noise isolation tests. Our results are only valid when using them in this configuration.

You'd be forgiven for confusing the Nothing Ear buds for the previous Nothing Ear (2) because they look a lot alike. However, you can tell them apart by spotting the 'Nothing' name printed on the Nothing Ear buds' battery charging case instead of the 'ear (case)' on the last gen. The Nothing Ear buds are stemmed with flat outer housings and white (for left) and red (for right) dots to differentiate the buds. The brand's distinct look comprises a mixture of translucent and matte plastic accents in 'White' or 'Black' colorways.

The Nothing Ear buds feel comfortable. Their oblong-shaped housing snugly fits behind the ear concha, and they don't have a deep in-ear fit. You get four sets of silicone ear tips—also oblong—so they don't apply too much pressure. The downside of their lightweight (and not terribly invasive) fit is that it's easy to shift the earbuds when using their pinch controls on the stems.

They have good controls. They straddle the line between conventional touch controls and physical buttons, as they use pressure-sensitive stems, so you don't tap a surface or actuate a physical button to register a command. Instead, you need to apply pressure to the stem's indent while holding the stem between two fingers as you would to press a button and rely on the bud's audible feedback that it has registered. The upside is that you mitigate accidentally triggering a command the way you can with conventional touchpads. The downside is that it's a bit annoying to do 'pinches' in quick succession. Also, you need to be more intentional when you register a command, and doing so can shift the earbud's positioning in your ear. If you're running and trying to skip a song—two pinches—it's a bit more laborious when you're moving up and down with each stride to get it right.

All that said, their control scheme can be viewed here, and they cover most of what you need for listening modes, playback, and calls. Only the noise cancelling is on/off, which requires you to use the app if you want to adjust its strength—that's pretty normal. Like the last generation model, you need the buds in the case to pair the earbuds.

These earbuds are incredibly portable. They fit into pockets and weigh very little.

Their charging case is great. Not much has changed over the Nothing generations—excluding the impractical shape of the Nothing Ear (stick) tube case, which tends to either fall over with a slight breeze or roll away. Like the previous Nothing Ear (2)'s case, this one is low and flat and has a clamshell lid with rounded but slightly sharp corners. There's a USB-C charging port and a pairing button beside it, or you can charge the case wirelessly. Inside the case, it's color-coded for quickly putting your buds back by matching the white or red dots to the colors on the buds. Viewable through the lid is a small interior light that indicates status, like charging and pairing, but it's pretty utilitarian. However, while the clear plastic exterior looks good, it can pick up dust or surface scratches, and it feels a bit cheap despite the reassurance of its IP55 rating against dust and water.

Their build quality is impressive. The earbuds are rated IP54, and the charging case has an IP55 rating against dust and water splashes, so you don't need to concern yourself with errant raindrops. Their plastic bud housings feel good, though not premium, and the three pairs of ear tips are a bit thin. While the case's plastic seems a bit cheap, it's compact and light, and the hinge doesn't wobble.

The Nothing Ear buds have good stability. They stay in your ears for walks and moderate upright exercise. Due to their noninvasive fit, they sit a bit looser than designs like the Sony WF-1000XM5 Truly Wireless, which have a deeper in-ear fit. As a result, they can fall out during a trail run or headbanging.

• Nothing Ear buds
• Charging case
• USB-C to USB-C charging cable (7.9 inches / 20 cm)
• 3x ear tips
• Manuals

Their full-range noise isolation is decent. When set to 'Max' ANC, they effectively reduce low-pitched environmental noise. The combined ANC and isolation are less effective with mid-range noises like ambient din and background talking. When ANC is on, it interferes with how well the isolation performs with very high-pitched external sounds.

You get three manual ANC modes of different strengths, in addition to an Adaptive ANC mode, a Transparency mode, and a normal listening mode. We tested them at the 'Max' setting, but as you can see when comparing all of the modes, there's not much difference between 'Max' and 'Mid' ANC settings. If you have an Android or Samsung device, you might prefer the stronger ANC onboard the Samsung Galaxy Buds3 Pro, which cut out deep rumbling noises more effectively than the Nothing buds.

The buds' noise isolation performs decently in common scenarios. They work very similarly in different situations, cutting more boomy frequencies than mid-range noise like talking. They aren't quite as effective as the Apple AirPods Pro (2nd generation) overall, but they aren't too different with handling high-pitched noises.

The Nothing Ear buds don't have a dedicated wind reduction mode. As a result, the 'anti-noise' created by the noise cancelling system and the wind interacting with external mics gets fed back into your ears and varies in loudness, depending on the angle of the wind. The buds handle wind noise best with the ANC at 'Max,' and as expected, if you decrease the ANC strength, they handle wind noise worse. It's worth noting that the Adaptive ANC mode handles noise worse than ANC manually set to 'Low.' You can also see how the other ANC modes handle wind.

Their leakage performance is great. Treble leaks the loudest, with mids and bass leaking at quieter volumes, producing a bright and thin version of your audio. It won't bother those around you unless you're in a very quiet space.

The mic system's recording quality is mediocre. It emphasizes the high-mids and treble ranges and strongly scoops lower frequencies, resulting in clear but harsh-sounding speech that lacks body. Your speech remains comprehensible. The AI-integrated mic system produces an inaudible artifact above most people's hearing range, which is additionally amplified by our testing rig.

Their mic's noise handling is good. The 'Clear AI' noise filter suppresses constant background noise well, though it can slightly hurt the intelligibility of your words by cutting out too much. In the presence of sudden noise, it successfully prioritizes your voice, and you're not drowned out by the racket in the background. The only downside is that the noise filtering can leave your voice sounding unnatural.

The Nothing Ear buds' battery performance is alright. Reaching 7.5 hours with ANC on, they're an improvement over the last generation, Nothing Ear (2)'s continuous battery life of 5.6 hours. The figure also differs from the advertised battery life with ANC, so your experience may vary depending on use and volume levels. The case stores just under four extra charges. A 10-minute fast recharge tops up the case's battery by 10 hours (according to the manufacturer), so you'll be able to stay connected.

Unfortunately, they don't have an auto-off timer, so you'll need to place them in the case to ensure they don't die from idling loose on a desk. To conserve the battery life somewhat if you don't use the case, you can use the in-ear detection function available in their app and disable ANC, so they enter a standby mode when you remove them. But, considering that it's easier to forget to disable ANC than to put earbuds away for most people, it's a workaround that might not work for you.

The Nothing Ear buds' app support is good. They use the NothingX app (viewable here) to handle control remapping, ANC strength and transparency modes, codec selection, a fit test, and in-ear detection. The app gives you nuanced control over the sound profile by utilizing a sound personalization hearing test and a comprehensive EQ. The equalizer is user-friendly because you can choose the 'Simple' version, a three-band EQ labeled 'bass,' 'mid,' and 'treble' with a graphic interface and presets. For the tinkerer, there's the 'Advanced' EQ, with eight bands; you can shift each band's frequency range and adjust the Q-factor, which are uncommon features. Otherwise, you can toggle Low Lag Mode and switch between two paired devices. If you misplace the earbuds, they have a Find My Earbuds function, but don't test it out if you're wearing them because they'll emit a loud sound. Lastly, you can set up the app to work with the AI system, ChatGPT, so the mics pick up your voice commands and queries and send them to ChatGPT for a response.

These earbuds include a USB-C to USB-C charging cable for the case. They don't have wired playback capabilities.

The Nothing Ear buds have amazing Bluetooth connectivity. They support multi-device pairing with two devices, and Google Fast Pair, so they're a good choice for anyone looking for the best earbuds for Android. You can also choose Bluetooth codecs specific to your needs: LDAC, LHDC, AAC, and SBC. LDAC and the less common LHDC can provide high-quality audio. Meanwhile, AAC is optimal for iOS users, and SBC is the more basic option. On the downside, while the companion app has a 'Low Lag Mode,' which reduces SBC latency significantly, it's still too high to remedy lip-sync issues, and without the mode enabled, it's worse—closer to the LDAC's high latency measurement. Latency is fine if you're listening to music (and often expected with high-quality codecs like LDAC), but the lag isn't low enough to avoid disruptive lip-sync mismatches while streaming videos. While latency varies depending on many factors, including connection strength, operating systems, and whether you're using an app that compensates or not, all of the codecs tested were pretty high in latency. However, we don't have a test instrument for LHDC, which is supposed to be a low-latency codec. Your experience with a different configuration could yield other results, though.

 

These Bluetooth-only earbuds can connect to your Bluetooth-compatible PC for full audio and mic support.

Their charging case charges via USB-C or wirelessly. It stores shy of four extra full charges.